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| hedges empire of illusion: Empire of Illusion Chris Hedges, 2009-07-28 Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Empire of Illusion Chris Hedges, 2010-10-05 The author navigates America's divided culture--where a minority embraces film, theater, and books, while the majority cling to a world of fantasy and false certainty--to expose what he sees as an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion. |
| hedges empire of illusion: War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning Chris Hedges, 2014-04-08 General George S. Patton famously said, Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, I do love it so! Though Patton was a notoriously single-minded general, it is nonetheless a sad fact that war gives meaning to many lives, a fact with which we have become familiar now that America is once again engaged in a military conflict. War is an enticing elixir. It gives us purpose, resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble. Chris Hedges of The New York Times has seen war up close -- in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central America -- and he has been troubled by what he has seen: friends, enemies, colleagues, and strangers intoxicated and even addicted to war's heady brew. In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, he tackles the ugly truths about humanity's love affair with war, offering a sophisticated, nuanced, intelligent meditation on the subject that is also gritty, powerful, and unforgettable. |
| hedges empire of illusion: America: The Farewell Tour Chris Hedges, 2019-08-27 Chris Hedges’s profound and unsettling examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate. America, says Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet. Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his “forceful and direct” (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Death of the Liberal Class Chris Hedges, 2010-10-19 For decades the liberal class was a defense against the worst excesses of power. But the pillars of the liberal class -- the press, universities, the labor movement, the Democratic Party, and liberal religious institutions -- have collapsed. In its absence, the poor, the working class, and even the middle class no longer have a champion. In this searing polemic Chris Hedges indicts liberal institutions, including his former employer, the New York Times, who have distorted their basic beliefs in order to support unfettered capitalism, the national security state, globalization, and staggering income inequalities. Hedges argues that the death of the liberal class created a profound vacuum at the heart of American political life. And now speculators, war profiteers, and demagogues -- from militias to the Tea Party -- are filling the void. |
| hedges empire of illusion: American Fascists Chris Hedges, 2008-01-08 From the celebrated author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning comes a startling expos of the political ambitions of the Christian Right--a clarion call for everyone who cares about freedom. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Wages of Rebellion Chris Hedges, 2015-05-12 Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges -- who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class -- investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization. Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as sublime madness -- the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this sublime madness. From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, 2012-06-12 With illustrations by award-winning comic artist Joe Sacco, Chris Hedges portrays a suffering nation on the cusp of widespread revolt and addresses Occupy Wall Street in his first book since the international protests began. In the tradition of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Hedges and Sacco travel to the depressed pockets of the United States to report on recession-era America. What they find in Camden, New Jersey, the devastated coalmines of West Virginia, on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota, and in undocumented farmworker colonies in California is a thriving neofeudalism. With extraordinary on-the-ground reportage and illustration, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt provides a terrifying glimpse of a future for America and the nations that follow her lead--a future that will be avoided with nothing short of revolution. |
| hedges empire of illusion: What Every Person Should Know About War Chris Hedges, 2007-11-01 Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself. Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies. • What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war? • What does it feel like to get shot? • What do artillery shells do to you? • What is the most painful way to get wounded? • Will I be afraid? • What could happen to me in a nuclear attack? • What does it feel like to kill someone? • Can I withstand torture? • What are the long-term consequences of combat stress? • What will happen to my body after I die? This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Unspeakable Chris Hedges, 2016-10-11 Chris Hedges on the most taboo topics in America, with David Talbot. The War on Terror is a profitable crusade against convenient enemies. “Muslim rage” is an understandable response to US state terror. Rising oligarchy in America has made democracy a sham and turned the electoral process into an increasingly absurd circus. Police violence against minorities is part of a systematic effort to crush social discontent. Proliferating violence against women’s health clinics is part of the war on women’s bodies. Freedom of speech is an illusion, with government agencies and corporate media dictating acceptable boundaries of public discourse. America’s only hope is a revolution to create genuine structures of popular power. This kind of insight into America’s deeply troubled current state cannot be found on television, in the pages of leading newspapers, or on Google News. Many of our most important thinkers are relegated to the shadows because their ideas are deemed too radical—or true—for public consumption. Among these intellectual bomb throwers is Chris Hedges, who, after decades on the front lines, continues to confront power in America in the most incisive, challenging ways. Hedges’s unfettered conversation with Hot Books editorial director David Talbot— founder of Salon and author of New York Times bestseller, The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America’s Secret Government—will be the first in a series for Hot Books called “Unspeakable,” featuring some of the most important – and censored – voices in the world today. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Losing Moses on the Freeway Chris Hedges, 2005-06-07 The 10 Commandments -- the laws given to Moses by God -- are beyond the scope of human law. They are rules meant to hold us together but, when dishonored, they lead to discord and violence. In this fierce, articulate narrative, Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, looks through the lens of each commandment to examine the moral ruin of American society. With urgency and passion, he challenges readers to take a hard look at the disconnect between their supposed values and the shallow, self-absorbed lives many people actually lead. Taking examples from his personal life and twenty years of reporting, Hedges explores one commandment at a time, each through a particular social group. With each story, he reveals the universal nature of personal suffering, discovery, and redemption -- and explores the laws that we have tried to follow, often unsuccessfully, for the past 6,000 years. |
| hedges empire of illusion: I Don't Believe in Atheists Chris Hedges, 2008 No Marketing Blurb |
| hedges empire of illusion: The World As It Is Chris Hedges, 2011-04-12 Drawing on two decades of experience as a war correspondent and based on his numerous columns for Truthdig, Chris Hedges presents The World As It Is, a panorama of the American empire at home and abroad, from the coarsening effect of America's War on Terror to the front lines in the Middle East and South Asia and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Underlying his reportage is a constant struggle with the nature of war and its impact on human civilization. War is always about betrayal, Hedges notes. It is about betrayal of the young by the old, of cynics by idealists, and of soldiers and Marines by politicians. Society's institutions, including our religious institutions, which mold us into compliant citizens, are unmasked. |
| hedges empire of illusion: When Atheism Becomes Religion Chris Hedges, 2009-03-10 From the New York Times bestselling author of American Fascists and the NBCC finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning comes this timely and compelling work about new atheists: those who attack religion to advance the worst of global capitalism, intolerance and imperial projects. Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, has long been a courageous voice in a world where there are too few. He observes that there are two radical, polarized and dangerous sides to the debate on faith and religion in America: the fundamentalists who see religious faith as their prerogative, and the new atheists who brand all religious belief as irrational and dangerous. Both sides use faith to promote a radical agenda, while the religious majority, those with a commitment to tolerance and compassion as well as to their faith, are caught in the middle. The new atheists, led by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, do not make moral arguments about religion. Rather, they have created a new form of fundamentalism that attempts to permeate society with ideas about our own moral superiority and the omnipotence of human reason. I Don't Believe in Atheists critiques the radical mindset that rages against religion and faith. Hedges identifies the pillars of the new atheist belief system, revealing that the stringent rules and rigid traditions in place are as strict as those of any religious practice. Hedges claims that those who have placed blind faith in the morally neutral disciplines of reason and science create idols in their own image -- a sin for either side of the spectrum. He makes an impassioned, intelligent case against religious and secular fundamentalism, which seeks to divide the world into those worthy of moral and intellectual consideration and those who should be condemned, silenced and eradicated. Hedges shatters the new atheists' assault against religion in America, and in doing so, makes way for new, moderate voices to join the debate. This is a book that must be read to understand the state of the battle about faith. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Our Class Chris Hedges, 2022-10-11 Chris Hedges's powerful memoir of his year of teaching inmates in a maximum-security New Jersey prison takes readers into the lives of men who were all but destined to become incarcerated because of their impoverished and dangerous childhoods and shows why criminal justice reform is so essential-- |
| hedges empire of illusion: Race Against Time Stephen Lewis, 2006 In 2000, the United Nations laid out a series of eight goals meant to guide humankind in the new century. Called the Millennium Development Goals, these targets are to be met by 2015 and are to lay the foundation for a prosperous future. In Race Against Time, Stephen Lewis advances real solutions to help societies across the globe achieve the Millennium Goals. Through lucid, pragmatic explanations, he shows how dreams such as universal primary education, a successful war against the AIDS pandemic, and environmental sustainability, are within the grasp of humanity. For anyone interested in forging a better world in the third millennium, Race Against Time is powerful testimony. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Collateral Damage Chris Hedges, Laila Al-Arian, 2009-02-10 Collateral Damage brings together testimony from the largest number of on the record, named, combat veterans who reveal the disturbing, daily reality of war and occupation in Iraq. Through their eyes, we learn how the mechanics of war lead to the abuse and frequent killing of innocents. They describe convoys of vehicles roaring down roads, smashing into cars, and hitting Iraqi civilians. They detail raids that leave families shot dead in the mayhem. And they describe a battlefield in which troops, untrained to distinguish between combatants and civilians, are authorized to shoot whenever they feel threatened. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Woodstock Rising Tom Wayman, 2009-09-28 It’s late 1969 and Communist China has successfully launched its first satellite. Inspired by this feat, a group of college students in Laguna Beach, California, set out to put their own satellite into orbit in homage to the recent Woodstock Festival. A young Canadian graduate student at the University of California finds himself at the centre of the mayhem when he and his friends break into a mothballed missile silo and commandeer everything they need, including a nuclear warhead, to blast the Woodstock Nation into the space age. The activists have big plans for their loot, schemes that may well culminate in the Light Show to End All Light Shows in the Nevada desert. An extraordinary black comedy shot full of the social and political issues of the time, Woodstock Rising is a coming-of-age tale couched in free love, rock anthems, and revolution as well as a chronicle of an era whose causes continue to speak to us. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Collusion Nomi Prins, 2018-05-01 In this searing exposéformer Wall Street insider Nomi Prins shows how the 2007-2008 financial crisis turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. Central banks and international institutions like the IMF have overstepped their traditional mandates by directing the flow of epic sums of fabricated money without any checks or balances. Meanwhile, the open door between private and central banking has ensured endless opportunities for market manipulation and asset bubbles -- with government support. Through on-the-ground reporting, Prins reveals how five regions and their central banks reshaped economics and geopolitics. She discloses how Mexico navigated its relationship with the US while striving for independence and how Brazil led the BRICS countries to challenge the US dollar's hegemony. She explains how China's retaliation against the Fed's supremacy is aiding its ongoing ascent as a global superpower and how Japan is negotiating the power shift from the West to the East. And she illustrates how the European response to the financial crisis fueled instability that manifests itself in everything from rising populism to the shocking Brexit vote. Packed with tantalizing details about the elite players orchestrating the world economy -- from Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi to Ben Bernanke and Christine Lagarde -- Collusion takes the reader inside the most discreet conversations at exclusive retreats like Jackson Hole and Davos. A work of meticulous reporting and bracing analysis, Collusion will change the way we understand the new world of international finance. |
| hedges empire of illusion: The DPhotographer Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédéric Lemercier, 2009-05-12 In 1986, Afghanistan was torn apart by a war with the Soviet Union. This graphic novel/photo-journal is a record of one reporter’s arduous and dangerous journey through Afghanistan, accompanying the Doctors Without Borders. Didier Lefevre’s photography, paired with the art of Emmanuel Guibert, tells the powerful story of a mission undertaken by men and women dedicated to mending the wounds of war. Emmanuel Guibert’s most recent book for First Second was the critically acclaimed Alan’s War, the memoir of a WWII G.I. His close friendship with Didier Lefevre inspired him to combine art and photography to create this momentous book. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Caged New Jersey Prison Theater Cooperative, 2020-03-03 This poignant play, written by current and formerly incarcerated authors uses, gripping truths and soulful dialogue to reveal the human cost of America's for-profit justice system. The story follows Omar, pulled back into the prison system after trying to lift his family out of poverty, who struggles to maintain a sense of humanity while fighting to keep his loved ones close. According to NJ.com, From institutionalized racism to addiction to the prison-industrial complex, this is a play about a great many large, pressing social challenges, but at its core it is a play about one family and its struggles to remain united as their world steadily crumbles. Impactful, warm, and unrelenting, this play that began as an experiment turns out to be an excellent examination of the human cost of a harsh and inhospitable world. For every print copy of Caged purchased from Haymarket Books through June 1, Haymarket will donate a copy of the book to prisoners and their families working with the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons Consortium (NJ-STEP). All profits from the book will go to a prison re-entry fund run by The Second Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth, New Jersey to help the playwrights secure housing and continue their schooling upon release. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Democracy Incorporated Sheldon S. Wolin, 2017-08-29 Democracy is struggling in America--by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms inverted totalitarianism? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive--and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a managed democracy where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level. Democracy Incorporated is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightning rod for political debate for years to come. Now with a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, Democracy Incorporated remains an essential work for understanding the state of democracy in America. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Soul Retrieval Joanna Neff, 2003 Stuck in your stuff, no matter how hard you've worked? Issues from past lives may be haunting you... Higher-dimensional soul retrieval moves you through the threshold at last! |
| hedges empire of illusion: The Grimoire of Kensington Market Lauren B. Davis, 2018-10-16 Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, and woven through with northern folk tales, The Grimoire of Kensington Market is the story of Maggie, proprietor of the Grimoire bookstore, the cosmic nexus of all the world's tales. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Life: The Movie Neal Gabler, 2000-02-29 The story of how our bottomless appetite for novelty, gossip, and melodrama has turned everything—news, politics, religion, high culture—into one vast public entertainment. Neal Gabler calls them lifies, those blockbusters written in the medium of life that dominate the media and the national conversation for weeks, months, even years: the death of Princess Diana, the trial of O.J. Simpson, Kenneth Starr vs. William Jefferson Clinton. Real Life as Entertainment is hardly a new phenomenon, but the movies, and now the new information technologies, have so accelerated it that it is now the reigning popular art form. How this came to pass, and just what it means for our culture and our personal lives, is the subject of this witty, concerned, and sometimes eye-opening book. A thoughtful, in places chilling, account of the way entertainment values have hollowed out American life. --The New York Times Book Review |
| hedges empire of illusion: Dissent Ralph Young, 2015-04-24 Historian Ralph Young’s Dissent: The History of an American Idea “covers both the liberal and conservative movements that changed American history.” A Ralph Waldo Emerson Award Finalist One of *Bustle’s Books For Your Civil Disobedience Reading List Ralph Young’s stunningly comprehensive volume examines the key role dissent has played in shaping the United States, focusing on those who, from colonial days to the present, dissented against the ruling paradigm of their time: from the Puritan Anne Hutchinson and Native American chief Powhatan in the seventeenth century to the Occupy and Tea Party movements in the twenty-first. At its founding, the United States committed itself to lofty ideals. When the promise of those ideals was not fully realized by all Americans, many protested and demanded that the United States live up to its promise. Women fought for equal rights; abolitionists sought to destroy slavery; workers organized unions; Indians resisted white encroachment on their land; radicals angrily demanded an end to the dominance of the moneyed interests; civil rights protestors marched to end segregation; antiwar activists took to the streets to protest the nation’s wars; and reactionaries, conservatives, and traditionalists in each decade struggled to turn back the clock to a simpler, more secure time. Some dissenters are celebrated heroes of American history, while others are ordinary people: frequently overlooked, but whose stories show that change is often accomplished through grassroots activism. Dissent emphasizes how these Americans responded to what they saw as the injustices that prevented them from fully experiencing their vision of America. “A must read for any citizen interested in making a stronger democracy.” —Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Heather Ann Thompson |
| hedges empire of illusion: The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse Hermann Hesse, 1995-10-01 Translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes A collection of twenty-two fairy tales by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, most translated into English for the first time, show the influence of German Romanticism, psychoanalysis, and Eastern religion on his development as an author. Praise for The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse “Sometimes lush and lyrical, sometimes in the simple language of the parable, these tales elaborate Hesse's concerns with mortality, the unity of life and the isolation of the artist. . . . Quirky and evocative, Hesse's fairy tales stand alone, but also amplify the ideas and utopian longings of such counterculture avatars as Siddhartha and Steppenwolf.”—Publishers Weekly “Hesse unerringly creates the feel of a fairy tale. . . . Lay readers will enjoy this as much as literary specialists.”—Library Journal |
| hedges empire of illusion: Have More Money Now John Layfield, 2003-07-01 So you're holding this book in your hand, wondering: Just what does this WWE Superstar know about the world of finance? Have you ever been down to your last twenty-seven dollars, out of a job, and wondering what you were going to do? If anyone needed to learn about finance, it was that person -- and he was me. I've had to learn through my own mistakes, and now you can learn from me. I break it all down for you in easy-to-understand language: Give Yourself a Pay Cut Set Your Goals Before You Start Living Within Your Means You Can't Crash-Diet -- Or Crash-Budget Good Debt vs. Bad Debt How Much Can You Spare? Keep It Simple Buy-and-Hold Doesn't Mean Buy-and-Ignore I might not work on Wall Street nor have a finance degree, but I've learned how to save, how to invest. And you too can Have More Money Now. |
| hedges empire of illusion: When All Else Fails Rayyan Al-Shawaf, 2022-12-06 A darkly humorous saga set in post-9/11 America and the Middle East When All Else Fails begins on September 12th, 2001. It is the story of Hunayn, a luckless and lovelorn Iraqi college student living in Orlando, Florida, after having graduated from high school in Beirut. Hunayn’s life is upended by 9/11—but not immediately, and not in the way that he, fearful in the aftermath of the attacks, initially expects. As America settles into its post-9/11, open-ended “Septemberland” phase (vigilant but also overly suspicious and even paranoid), many Arab and Muslim Americans are made to feel it’s no longer their home. With Hunayn, who muddles through a series of surreal episodes in Orlando and nearby Indiantown, the situation proves almost the opposite: Septemberland—so many of whose citizens think they have Hunayn figured out just because of his name or origins—comes to remind him of his most recent unhappy home, Lebanon, which he assumed he’d left behind. Now, having had his fill of disconcerting experiences, Hunayn returns to Beirut. At least he knows how to navigate life back there—or so he thinks. It turns out that Lebanon is about to undergo political upheaval of its own: a former prime minister opposed to neighboring Syria’s control of the country is assassinated; subsequent popular protests compel the Syrian regime to withdraw its army; a spate of mysterious bombings terrorizes everyone; and Israel, another neighbor, launches a war on Lebanon in retaliation for an attack by a Lebanese militant group. Hunayn finds himself aswirl in the maelstrom. And all the while, he watches from afar as Iraq, his fabled homeland and the owner of his heart, unravels in the wake of the US-led invasion. |
| hedges empire of illusion: The Twilight of American Culture Morris Berman, 2001-06-17 An emerging cult classic about America's cultural meltdown—and a surprising solution. A prophetic examination of Western decline, The Twilight of American Culture provides one of the most caustic and surprising portraits of American society to date. Whether examining the corruption at the heart of modern politics, the Rambification of popular entertainment, or the collapse of our school systems, Morris Berman suspects that there is little we can do as a society to arrest the onset of corporate Mass Mind culture. Citing writers as diverse as de Toqueville and DeLillo, he cogently argues that cultural preservation is a matter of individual conscience, and discusses how classical learning might triumph over political correctness with the rise of a a new monastic individual—a person who, much like the medieval monk, is willing to retreat from conventional society in order to preserve its literary and historical treasures. Brilliantly observant, deeply thoughtful ....lucidly argued.—Christian Science Monitor |
| hedges empire of illusion: Bullet Points and Punch Lines Lee Camp, 2020 Comedian and TV host Lee Camp critiques United States foreign and domestic policy. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Twelve Steps Toward Political Revelation Walter Mosley, 2011-04-26 In his late teens and early twenties, Walter Mosley was addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Drawing from this intimate knowledge of addiction and recovery, Mosley explores the deviances of contemporary America and describes a society in thrall to its own consumption. Although Americans live in the richest country on earth, many citizens exist on the brink of poverty, and from that profound economic inequality stems self-destructive behavior. In Twelve Steps to Political Revelation, Mosley outlines a guide to recovery from oppression. First we must identify the problems that surround us. Next we must actively work together to create a just, more holistic society. And finally, power must be returned to the embrace of the people. Challenging and original, Recovery confronts both self-understanding and how we define ourselves in relation to others. |
| hedges empire of illusion: How We Fight White Supremacy Akiba Solomon, Kenrya Rankin, 2019-03-26 This celebration of Black resistance, from protests to art to sermons to joy, offers a blueprint for the fight for freedom and justice -- and ideas for how each of us can contribute Many of us are facing unprecedented attacks on our democracy, our privacy, and our hard-won civil rights. If you're Black in the US, this is not new. As Colorlines editors Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin show, Black Americans subvert and resist life-threatening forces as a matter of course. In these pages, leading organizers, artists, journalists, comedians, and filmmakers offer wisdom on how they fight White supremacy. It's a must-read for anyone new to resistance work, and for the next generation of leaders building a better future. Featuring contributions from: Ta-Nehisi Coates Tarana Burke Harry Belafonte Adrienne Maree brown Alicia Garza Patrisse Khan-Cullors Reverend Dr. Valerie Bridgeman Kiese Laymon Jamilah Lemieux Robin DG Kelley Damon Young Michael Arceneaux Hanif Abdurraqib Dr. Yaba Blay Diamond Stingily Amanda Seales Imani Perry Denene Millner Kierna Mayo John Jennings Dr. Joy Harden Bradford Tongo Eisen-Martin |
| hedges empire of illusion: Dark Age Ahead Jane Jacobs, 2005-05-17 In this indispensable book, urban visionary Jane Jacobs argues that as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future, we’re at risk of cultural collapse. Jacobs—renowned author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities—pinpoints five pillars of our culture that are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation, and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism, and the growing gulf between rich and poor. But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Drawing on a vast frame of reference—from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to Ireland’s cultural rebirth—Jacobs suggests how the cycles of decay can be arrested and our way of life renewed. Invigorating and accessible, Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs’ career, but one of the most important works of our time. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Every Body Has a Story Beverly Gologorsky, 2018 With the power to break and mend hearts, Every Body Has a Story reveals the fragility of the ties that bind, a grim yet lyrical journey into that other America just around the corner. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman, 1986 Examines the effects of television culture on how we conduct our public affairs and how entertainment values corrupt the way we think. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Stitches Anne Lamott, 2014-02-13 What do we do when life lurches out of balance? How can we reconnect to one another and to what's sustaining, when evil and catastrophe seem inescapable? These questions lie at the heart of Stitches, Anne Lamott's follow-up to her New York Times-bestselling work, Help, Thanks, Wow. In this book, she explores how we find meaning and peace in these loud and frantic times; where we start again after personal and public devastation; how we recapture wholeness after loss; and how we locate our true identities in this frazzled age. We begin, Lamott says, by collecting the ripped sheets of our emotional and spiritual fabric and sewing them back together - one stitch at a time. It's in these stitches that the quilt of life begins, and embedded in them are strength, warmth, humour and humanity. |
| hedges empire of illusion: In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower Davarian L Baldwin, 2021-03-30 Across America, universities have become big businesses—and our cities their company towns. But there is a cost to those who live in their shadow. Urban universities play an outsized role in America’s cities. They bring diverse ideas and people together and they generate new innovations. But they also gentrify neighborhoods and exacerbate housing inequality in an effort to enrich their campuses and attract students. They maintain private police forces that target the Black and Latinx neighborhoods nearby. They become the primary employers, dictating labor practices and suppressing wages. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower takes readers from Hartford to Chicago and from Phoenix to Manhattan, revealing the increasingly parasitic relationship between universities and our cities. Through eye-opening conversations with city leaders, low-wage workers tending to students’ needs, and local activists fighting encroachment, scholar Davarian L. Baldwin makes clear who benefits from unchecked university power—and who is made vulnerable. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower is a wake-up call to the reality that higher education is no longer the ubiquitous public good it was once thought to be. But as Baldwin shows, there is an alternative vision for urban life, one that necessitates a more equitable relationship between our cities and our universities. |
| hedges empire of illusion: Wild Green Oranges Bob Baldock, 2021-10-22 Bob Baldock spent five months in the Sierra Maestra of Cuba in1958 with Fidel Castro's combat unit, Movimiento 26 de Julio. While there, he was the only U.S. citizen from the mainland to see action in combat with Fidel's unit. Essentially autobiographical, Wild Green Oranges is a novel based on those experiences. |
| hedges empire of illusion: The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills Charles Bukowski, 1991 |
The Best Plants for Hedges: 23 Types of Hedges (With Pictures)
Nov 26, 2021 · Here is a list of the best hedge plants you can grow in your backyard and front of house. Box is a popular evergreen plant for creating formal hedges in your backyard or front of …
19 Easy-Care Shrubs to Use as Hedge Plants for Outdoor Privacy
Jan 12, 2024 · Plant a hedge with these reliable shrubs to boost outdoor privacy. Block wind, buffer noise, or create more private outdoor living spaces by planting a row of these easy-care shrubs …
21 Best Evergreen and Flowering Shrubs for Hedges - The Spruce
May 1, 2024 · Hedge plants serve the practical function of giving privacy or security but are also decorative. Discover the best shrubs to use for hedges.
The Top 10 Best Shrubs for Hedges - Monrovia
Sep 21, 2023 · Discover the top 10 best shrubs for hedges, offering privacy, windbreaks, and nesting places for birds. Create beautiful boundaries with these recommended shrubs!
14 Best Hedge Plants for Provide Natural Privacy - Martha Stewart
May 9, 2025 · When choosing a hedge, you'll need to consider its size, height, whether it drops or keeps its leaves year-round, and how appropriate the plant is for your area. Ahead, our experts …
14 Hedge Plants That Will Add Privacy And Beauty To Your Garden
Apr 25, 2025 · Hedges are shrubs planted close together to define outdoor spaces, create privacy, shelter garden rooms, and serve as a backdrop to planting beds. Hedges add color, texture, and …
Types of Hedges | Buy Hedges Online at InstantHedge
Hedges: Our collection was built to suit every need. Evergreen hedges for privacy, deciduous hedges for screening, unique and flowering hedges for color.
20 Types of Hedges Compared: Pros & Cons (With Pictures)
May 5, 2025 · Hedges are attractive additions to any landscape. They provide interest and can act as focal points. They can also serve several functions, such as privacy screens, habitats for …
The Best Shrubs for Creating Hedges | Gardener’s Path
Jun 6, 2017 · Planting a hedge is one of the friendliest ways to put a border around a property. Unlike fences, shrubs take time to grow, allowing you to ease into defining your space. In …
15 Types of Hedges That Form the Perfect Lawn Boundary
May 24, 2023 · Hedges have a variety of uses – from acting as a privacy screen to serving as a decorative piece in your garden. Now, the question is, what kind of plant to choose for your …
The Best Plants for Hedges: 23 Types of Hedges (With Pictures)
Nov 26, 2021 · Here is a list of the best hedge plants you can grow in your backyard and front of house. Box is a popular evergreen plant for creating formal hedges in your backyard or front of …
19 Easy-Care Shrubs to Use as Hedge Plants for Outdoor Privacy
Jan 12, 2024 · Plant a hedge with these reliable shrubs to boost outdoor privacy. Block wind, buffer noise, or create more private outdoor living spaces by planting a row of these easy-care …
21 Best Evergreen and Flowering Shrubs for Hedges - The Spruce
May 1, 2024 · Hedge plants serve the practical function of giving privacy or security but are also decorative. Discover the best shrubs to use for hedges.
The Top 10 Best Shrubs for Hedges - Monrovia
Sep 21, 2023 · Discover the top 10 best shrubs for hedges, offering privacy, windbreaks, and nesting places for birds. Create beautiful boundaries with these recommended shrubs!
14 Best Hedge Plants for Provide Natural Privacy - Martha Stewart
May 9, 2025 · When choosing a hedge, you'll need to consider its size, height, whether it drops or keeps its leaves year-round, and how appropriate the plant is for your area. Ahead, our …
14 Hedge Plants That Will Add Privacy And Beauty To Your Garden
Apr 25, 2025 · Hedges are shrubs planted close together to define outdoor spaces, create privacy, shelter garden rooms, and serve as a backdrop to planting beds. Hedges add color, …
Types of Hedges | Buy Hedges Online at InstantHedge
Hedges: Our collection was built to suit every need. Evergreen hedges for privacy, deciduous hedges for screening, unique and flowering hedges for color.
20 Types of Hedges Compared: Pros & Cons (With Pictures)
May 5, 2025 · Hedges are attractive additions to any landscape. They provide interest and can act as focal points. They can also serve several functions, such as privacy screens, habitats for …
The Best Shrubs for Creating Hedges | Gardener’s Path
Jun 6, 2017 · Planting a hedge is one of the friendliest ways to put a border around a property. Unlike fences, shrubs take time to grow, allowing you to ease into defining your space. In …
15 Types of Hedges That Form the Perfect Lawn Boundary
May 24, 2023 · Hedges have a variety of uses – from acting as a privacy screen to serving as a decorative piece in your garden. Now, the question is, what kind of plant to choose for your …
